July 23, 2014 at 11:52 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Euphemism of the Month:
“Distraught,” as in: “A distraught man yelled ‘This is my beach! My Social Security number is 555-55-5555’” while driving erratically in a beach parking lot before plowing his car into the ocean. As his passenger bailed out of the car and fled into the bluffs on a beach near Long Beach, California, the driver bailed and swam out to sea. Lifeguards plucked him out of the surf and held him for police. The only question is which drug (or drugs) does that euphemism stand for? Is it, “A man high on meth yelled…” or “A drunk man high on PCP yelled…”?
Permalink
July 23, 2014 at 11:51 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Naïve Politician of the Month:
California Governor Jerry Brown, vetoing a bill that would have added repeated alcohol and other-drug offenses as reasons to deny gun ownership for ten years by those with two DUIs or other misdemeanor substance “abuse” convictions within any three-year span. Brown explained, “I am not persuaded that it is necessary to prohibit gun ownership on the basis of crimes that are non-felonies, non-violent and do not involve misuse of a firearm.” Brown appears completely unaware of the fact that a DUI is a near-certain indication of alcoholism and alcoholics are capable of anything, including using guns to commit mayhem. He also seems unaware of studies supporting this, showing that a gun owner with even one misdemeanor ...
Permalink
July 23, 2014 at 11:49 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Retrospective Disenabler of the Month:
Miss Kay, who was thrown out of their home for three months at one point during Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson’s hard-drinking days, after standing “by him when he was drinking and staying out all night.” Robertson came close to losing everything, including Miss Kay, who wanted a divorce. Phil “found God” and begged her to take him back—no doubt with a promise to get and stay sober. Without Miss Kay’s tough love, which even she didn’t immediately offer (as is so typical, this was, apparently, a last resort), Robertson likely never would have built his “Duck Commander” brand into a multi-million dollar enterprise and Duck Dynasty into the most popular reality television show ever, drawing ...
Permalink
July 23, 2014 at 11:48 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Sometimes, It Takes an Addict:
Velvet Underground co-founder, front man and lead guitarist Lou Reed, dead from liver disease at age 71, six months after a liver transplant. His “dark vision” helped the 1960s rock band become one of the most influential of its time. Greg Harris, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said that Reed’s work “provided the framework for generations of artists;” many consider him the “grandfather of punk.”
There is little doubt from an addictionologist’s vantage point that he was already a full-on addict in his teens. According to biographer Victor Bockris, he threatened to throw the “mother of all moodies if everyone didn’t pay complete attention to him” as he “tyrannically” presided over their ...
Permalink
July 23, 2014 at 11:47 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
And, an obituary for a great man and extraordinary influence on my life and ideas: David Keirsey, RIP
It’s unlikely anyone has had a greater influence on my life than David Keirsey. Not only did his work on personality type and temperament, primarily through his first book Please Understand Me (PUM), help make sense of other people’s behaviors, attitudes, abilities, interests, beliefs, preferences and core needs, which are frequently so dramatically different from mine, but a single comment he made to me personally was instrumental to my work in addiction. Without his almost off-the-cuff remark, I likely would never have developed the idea that behaviors are the key to identifying likely alcohol and other-drug addicts long before addictive use is confirmed.
My ...
Permalink
July 23, 2014 at 11:41 am ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
Jeffrey Rosen reviews the book Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade by Clarke D. Forsythe
Reading about historical figures and history through the lens of alcoholism is a mind-altering experience. History is radically transformed by alcoholics relative to what would otherwise be, without their influence. In nearly every field outside of science and mathematics, far more dramatic changes to history have been initiated by alcoholics than by non-addicts. A tiny sampling includes Abraham Lincoln’s assassination (assassin John Wilkes Booth was an alcoholic, as was Washington police officer John Parker, whose “need for a drink on the night of the assassination was so strong that he deserted his post outside the President’s box, left the theater, and went ...
Permalink
July 23, 2014 at 11:39 am ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Drug-addicted felon-dad
Dear Doug:
My four-year-old daughter’s father hasn’t been in our lives since she was born. Out of the blue, he sent her a birthday card and mentioned he might “pop in” to see her at some point. Since he didn’t bother to show up in court for our divorce hearing, he may not be aware that the decree stipulates “no contact.” I didn’t give her the card, but I wonder if this was wrong. By the way, he has a bad drug problem and has been in and out of prison.
Signed,
Cares about her daughter
Dear Codependent,
Other columnists might suggest that because of your daughter’s age, you should not show her the card. However, he is at least reaching out, which ...
Permalink
July 23, 2014 at 11:38 am ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
“[A good, good kid who had two recent DUIs] was an unlikely candidate to be caught up in the [lethal] rivalry.”
So wrote Ben Bolch and Richard Winton in a Los Angeles Times piece entitled “Giants-Dodgers rivalry turns ugly off the field again,” regarding a man, Jonathan Denver, in L.A. Dodgers attire being stabbed to death after a game in San Francisco after an altercation with Giants fans. While it’s possible Denver didn’t taunt the four Giants fans believed to have been involved in the killing, this may be yet again a case of addict v. addict, as often occurs in the criminal justice system. While friends and family all agreed Denver was “a good, good kid,” he was arrested twice ...
Permalink
July 23, 2014 at 11:32 am ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics, General
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“Overdrawn on Intelligence: James Andrews, 43, tried to use the ATM at his bank in St. Petersburg, Fla. When the ATM said he had no money in his account, he went inside to find out why. After the teller said he had a negative balance, Andrews allegedly passed a note to the teller demanding $1,000. The teller handed over an undisclosed amount of money, and Andrews left. When police found the getaway car, they discovered it was owned by a friend who claimed he gave Andrews a ride to the bank, but didn’t know he had robbed it. Police were quickly able to track Andrews down and arrest him on ...
Permalink
December 12, 2013 at 6:15 pm ·
Filed under General
How Addicts Help Trigger Riots: the Case of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman
In the criminal justice system, both perpetrator and victim—and others, including supporters of one side or the other who are most adept at fomenting rage, which can lead to mob violence/riots*—are frequently addicts. The George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case is no exception. Let’s look at the odds of addiction in each of those involved in this case.
In 2005, George Zimmerman was charged with "resisting [an] officer with violence" and "battery of [a] law enforcement officer." The charges were reduced and waived when he entered an alcohol education program. Around the same time, he was accused of domestic violence and fired as a private bouncer for being too “hot-tempered.” Because ...
Permalink
December 12, 2013 at 6:12 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Runner-up for top story of the month:
Aaron Hernandez, 23, former tight end for the New England Patriots, charged with first-degree murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd. The heavily-tattooed Hernandez (the more tattoos, the higher the odds of substance addiction) has also been charged with five firearms-related violations and is being investigated for multiple other murders in Florida and Massachusetts. Despite having received the lowest possible score, 1 out of 10, in the category “social maturity” on a personality test and psychological profile given by an NFL scouting service and being selected in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft, the Patriots recently signed him to a five-year extension, which included the largest signing bonus ($12.5 million) ever given ...
Permalink
December 12, 2013 at 6:09 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Codependent of the Month:
Rena Price, who inadvertently contributed to the start of the 1965 Watts riots, died recently of natural causes at 97. Her son, Marquette Frye, had been stopped by officers after driving erratically. After he failed sobriety tests, his mother, who had been summoned by a neighbor, scolded him about drinking and driving. Frye suddenly turned from being “good-humored and cooperative” to uncooperative, as he suddenly blew up at the officers. Accounts vary as to subsequent events, but after Frye’s arrest someone shoved Price, Frye was struck on the head by a patrolman’s baton and Price and her stepson (who was in the car with Frye) jumped on an officer. After rumors of the arrest and police abuse ...
Permalink
December 12, 2013 at 4:39 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Quotes of the month:
“The star regularly lavished castmates and crew with expensive perks to make up for his maddeningly odd behavior.”
So wrote Rebecca Rosenberg, Jamie Schram and Dan Macleod for the New York Post, describing actor James Gandolfini’s attempts to make up for his alcoholic antics like disappearing from the set of “The Sopranos” for days at a time. “All of a sudden, there’d be a sushi chef at lunch,” one crew member told reporters. “Or we’d all get massages.” These are classic alcoholic-on-bended knee attempts at reconciliation, promising “I’ll never do it again.” Alcoholism must be at the top of likely explanations for “maddeningly odd behaviors” that make us shake our heads and wonder, “what is he thinking?”
“There ...
Permalink
December 12, 2013 at 4:37 pm ·
Filed under General
Retrospective find of the month:
Numerous clues revealing likely addiction are disclosed in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics. Clue # 16, “Has ever knowingly made a false accusation” in the chapter, “A Supreme Being Complex,” describes how false accusations, an especially vile subcategory of lying, are often made by addicts. Turning facts and reason on their head, addicts “play an instigating and continuing role in most crowd psychology,” turning crowds into mobs, which can result in riots and witch-hunts*. These include the spate of daycare sex abuse “witch-hunts” of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
While the hysteria had largely died down by the time I began researching addiction, I thought it would make a fascinating study and add to the massive ...
Permalink
December 12, 2013 at 4:34 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Retrospective look of the month:
When I first saw the 2000 feature movie Erin Brockovich, with Julia Roberts playing the “environmental” activist, I speculated that the real Erin Brockovich might be alcoholic. I don’t recall what led me to this tentative diagnosis based on a mere portrayal and what would, for many, seem to be flimsy evidence. It could have been the willingness to (arguably) stretch the truth, which is often rooted in alcoholic confabulations; it might have been her foul mouth and cigarette-smoking —hypocritical for a purported anti-cancer crusader. Because alcoholism is often locked behind closed doors, I’ve learned patience is a virtue and things take time to see the light of day. In the case of the real Erin ...
Permalink
« Previous Page —
« Previous entries« Previous Page ·
Next Page »Next entries » —
Next Page »
